Hallowed turf: Josh Parr wins the Run to the Rose a fortnight ago on Hallowed Crown. Hugh Bowman takes the ride in Saturday's group 1 at Rosehill. Photo: Getty Images

Cojuangco has developed a magnificent racing empire, Gooree stud, at Mudgee where Cannon is a vital cog in producing top-class racehorses.

With the Cojuangco team for 32 years, Cannon in an equine sense has been a midwife for about 3000 foals, apart from teaching his grandchildren, including Monica Barrera – a new but valuable addition to the operation – to ride.

In the breeding season Cannon is on-call 24 hours a day. Last weekend she delivered a Fastnet Rock, a full-sister to Northern Meteor. Later she won fashions in the field at Mudgee, exchanging pleasantries and pecks, a far cry from Gooree smooch where she is required to give foals the kiss of life, including the 2001 Golden Slipper contender Royal Courtship.

"He didn't breathe," she said. "I had to give him mouth to mouth to get him going. Particularly satisfying. You've got to give them a bit of a puff to expand their lungs. I've had one this year. She's made it and she's good."

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Just how much can be gleaned from the first impressions?

"You can pick an outstanding foal," Cannon said. "They won't have legs going east, west, north and south, but standing upright and not walking down on bumpers. They will have a good head. You rarely get a good horse with a bad head. Sometimes they are crumpled in the legs, the result of being swished up inside the mother.

"You like a feisty little devil who will be up quickly. Running around and bucking by the time the sun comes up."

Where does Hallowed Crown fit?

"Nobody was jumping up and down about him," she said. "But James [Cummings, co-trainer and husband of Monica] had a feel for him and said: 'I really like that Crown Glory colt'.

Cannon described Hallowed Crown as "a very correct, medium-sized bay horse, wasn't a Bolshevik or anything like that. So he slipped under the radar."

Bolshevik? "One that's naughty," she replied.

The best? "I have a special spot for Smart Missile [second in the Golden Rose]. I'll go to my grave feeling Smartie would have won the Slipper. His foals are beautiful."

Ironically, Cojuangco won the first Golden Rose (then the Peter Pan) in 1978 before Cannon's time.

Any regrets? Well, on her recent trip to Italy for the Cummings–Barrera wedding, Cannon did not get the opportunity to apply the Gooree smooch to George Clooney.